Ukraine

Ukrainians pull back from airport; Poroshenko slams Russia
Ukraine’s military said on Monday it had pulled its forces back from defending a vital airport in the east against Russian tanks, as President Petro Poroshenko accused Moscow of “direct and open aggression”. The withdrawal from the civilian airport outside the city of Luhansk was the latest in a string of reverses for Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists who Kiev says have th [...]
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Lavrov: US, EU must demand Kiev stop using heavy artillery, airstrikes against civilians
Russia's foreign minister believes that the peace plan offered by the Ukrainian president is "unrealistic" and calls of the US and the EU to persuade Kiev to stop using heavy artillery and airstrikes against the civilian population in the country's east. “We assume that the most important thing is for Washington and Brussels to demand Kiev do the same thing they demand in any other conflict: [...]
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Ukrainian nuclear plant vulnerable to Kiev’s artillery strikes – Greenpeace expert
Europe's largest nuclear power plant is vulnerable to "direct bombardment" in Ukraine if caught in the conflict, a Greenpeace nuclear energy expert told a German newspaper, claiming that its nuclear reactors are not protected from armor-piercing weapons. Greenpeace nuclear expert Tobias Münchmeyer revealed his concerns over the six-reactor Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in eastern Ukraine to W [...]
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Russia’s Humanitarian ‘Invasion’ | Consortiumnews
Official Washington’s war-hysteria machine is running at full speed again after Russia unilaterally dispatched a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian supplies to the blockaded Ukrainian city of Luhansk, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Before dawn broke in Washington on Saturday, “Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists” – more accurately described as federalists of southeast Ukraine who [...]
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Monsanto in Ukraine: IMF loan for Ukraine may give GMO giant a backdoor into EU
Ukraine's bid for closer ties with the west could come at a cost. With the IMF set to loan the country $17 billion, the deal could also see GMO crops grown in some of the most fertile lands on the continent, warns Frederic Mousseau. Very few, not least the Ukrainian population are aware of these details, but according to Mousseau, who is a Policy Director at The Oakland Institute, in return for [...]
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IMF throws Ukraine $1.4bn lifeline
The International Monetary Fund has given a green light for Ukraine to receive the second tranche of financial assistance totalling $1.39 billion, meaning more austerity measures for the already struggling economy. “The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the first review of Ukraine’s performance under an economic program supported by a Stand-By Arrangem [...]
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‘United Continent’: European volunteers fighting Kiev troops in Eastern Ukraine
European volunteers are streaming into Ukraine to join the fighting on both sides. While Kiev's forces are beefed up with mercenaries from private military companies, Europeans have also come to defend the rebel Donbass region of their own free will. One of the latest reinforcements of anti-Kiev troops in Eastern Ukraine are four French ex-serviceman who have come to fight this war, thousands o [...]
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Crisis in Ukraine: A case study in mismanagement
The Ukrainian crisis has two closely intertwined dimensions: a domestic one and an external one, both testifying to the failure to manage the process correctly. Both provide abundant material for a study in abject mismanagement, with the lessons of European history consigned to oblivion. [...]
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Russia-led military bloc ready to send peacekeepers to Ukraine
The head of the CSTO says its peacekeepers are ready for any operations, including in Ukraine, but their deployment requires the go-ahead from leaders of all member-countries. "Deployment of the CSTO peacekeeping force can be ordered only by the Collective Security Council – the supreme body formed with heads of state of the member countries. By a joint decision these leaders can order the us [...]
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Ukrainian refugees to receive Russian pensions – minister
All Ukrainian refugees of pension age will receive their pensions in Russia, Deputy PM Olga Golodets has said in a radio interview. She oversees the social and health policies of the government, and said that Russia and Ukraine had a bilateral agreement allowing citizens to receive pensions in another country if the need arises. “We will pay the pensions to the refugees,” Golodets told repo [...]
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Ukraine moves to drop non-aligned status, apply for NATO membership
Ukraine's Cabinet has asked the country's parliament to consider dropping the country's non-aligned status and seek membership of NATO. Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk’s government submitted to the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, a draft bill that would cancel Ukraine’s non-aligned status and revive the country’s quest to join NATO – a path ditched by ousted President Viktor Yanukovich [...]
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Russia urges UNSC to stop “speculation around MH17 flight”
At a UN Security Council meeting, Russia demanded the international community to stop speculation about the MH17 flight, unless someone is willing to contribute info important to investigation, such as air traffic controller's records concealed by Kiev. Ukraine has proposed to await the outcome of the preliminary investigation into the of the Malaysian Boeing that was shot down on 17 July 2014, [...]
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UN: Ukraine conflict death toll hits 2,600, civilians “trapped inside conflict zones”
At least 2,593 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the start of the Kiev's military operation against anti-government forces there started in mid-April, according to a new estimate by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights. The death toll includes civilians, members of the Ukrainian troops and also fighters in the anti-government forces. [...]
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Putin: Kiev’s shelling in E. Ukraine reminiscent of Nazi actions during WWII
Russian President Vladimir Putin has compared the shelling of east Ukrainian towns and cities by Kiev's troops to actions carried out by the Nazis during World War II. “Sad as it might seem, this reminds me of the events of World War II, when the German Nazi occupants surrounded our cities, like Leningrad, and directly shelled those cities and their inhabitants,” Putin said on Friday, speak [...]
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Ukraine must ensure gas transit to Europe – EU energy chief
Russian-EU gas talks have progressed, but no solution was reached Friday over Russia and Ukraine's gas standoff. Moscow says their $100 gas discount to Kiev stands, and the EU doesn't want gas negotiations to be used to escalate the Ukraine crisis. The gas situation is ‘critical’ Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said after meeting with EU energy chief Gunther Oettinger in Moscow o [...]
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From Minsk to Wales, Germany is the key
The road to the Minsk summit this past Tuesday began to be paved when German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked to ARD public TV after her brief visit to Kiev on Saturday. Merkel emphasized, “A solution must be found to the Ukraine crisis that does not hurt Russia.” She added that "There must be dialogue. There can only be a political solution. There won't be a military solution to this con [...]
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Ukraine is ‘Committing Economic Suicide’
In an interview discussing Ukraine's plans to cut off gas transit from Russia, an RT news anchor asks whether or not the August 12 vote in Kiev on sanctions against Russia will go through.From the interview:"I think, given the bellicose nature of the Prime Minister Yatsenyuk thus far and the reckless manner in which he is governing, I would certainly expect them to. Really, what Ukraine is doin [...]
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The Risk of a Ukraine Bloodbath | Consortiumnews
Exclusive: Pressured by neocons and the mainstream U.S. media, the Obama administration is charting a dangerous course by seeking a military solution to Ukraine’s political crisis and possibly provoking Moscow to intervene to protect ethnic Russians, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern warns. [...]
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Government Likely Hiding Truth in Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Crash – Ron Paul
The U.S. government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a buck anti-aircraft missile. The little that we have heard from U.S. intelligence is that it has no evidence that Russia was involved. Yet the war propaganda was successful in convincing the American public that it was all Russia's fault. It's hard to b [...]
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Putin calls on Ukraine militia to let blocked Kiev troops to cross into Russia
President Putin has called on the self-defense militias in Ukraine to provide Kiev's military units blocked in the east of the country with a safe humanitarian corridor to cross into Russia. “It is clear the militia has achieved a major success in intercepting Kiev’s military operation, which represents a grave danger to the population of Donbass and which has already led to the loss of man [...]
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‘No Russian troops in Ukraine’: Moscow’s OSCE rep responds to Kiev’s claims
The OSCE was told there was no Russian presence spotted across the Ukraine border, refuting Thursday's claims that a full-scale invasion was underway. Both the Ukrainian monitoring team head and Russia's representative have given a frim 'no.' The chorus of allegations about Russia's military invasion of Ukraine had President Poroshenko calling for an emergency meeting of the country’s securit [...]
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Kiev loses control of Novoazovsk, rebel troops advance in southeast Ukraine
Kiev's troops had to leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk to save their lives, said the country's Security and Defense Council. The authorities admitted that self-defense forces are advancing and leading a counteroffensive in the southeast. Along with Novoazovsk, Kiev troops have lost control over the villages of Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevo in the Donetsk Region of Eastern Ukraine. [...]
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